Summary
The Ten Commandments are archetypal laws, representing all 613 laws of the Old Covenant. And the ten can be summarized by just two: (1) love God and (2) justly love the souls He brings into our lives. Now the main promise of Christ’s New Covenant salvation is that God will write His Law upon our hearts. Jesus, our Messiah and God, will save each chosen soul by writing His Law on each heart, by teaching His Law to each spirit. As spirits begin to understand and apply His Law, they learn to love as He loves, deeply and spontaneously, in a just, pure, wise way. We become His workmanship, conformed to His likeness, through His process of fulfilling His Law in and through us. Since God is love, and His Law defines love, His Law reveals a shadowy shape of Jesus, as it tutors us in His loving ways. His Law testifies about the real Jesus, leads us to Him.
Notices
In this book’s quotes from the Bible, the underlining, bold print and italics are mine. Translations of God’s name, such as “the LORD,” are frequently replaced with a literal translation in square brackets, [Yahweh]. Personal pronouns referring to God are capitalized. Capitalization errors are corrected (e.g., “Spirit” is changed to “spirit” if it refers to a human spirit and not to Creator God, who is a Spirit).
Many Biblical quotes are from the English Standard Version (ESV), Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, A division of Good News Publishers. Many other biblical quotes are from The Holy Bible, New King James Version (NKJV), Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. A few may be from the World English Bible (WEB), a 1997 public-domain revision of the American Standard Version of the Bible. When an English translation of the Bible is followed by the acronym “ALT,” it is an Alternative Literal Translation by me, the author, Greg Supina.
Definitions of Hebrew words are mostly derived from: (1) Strong’s Concordance, public domain; (2) Green, JP; The Brown-Driver-Briggs-Gensenius Hebrew-English Lexicon; Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, Massachusetts, 1979; (3) Wilson, William; Old Testament Word Studies; Kregel Publications, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1978; (4) Davidson, Benjamin; The Analytical Hebrew Chaldee Lexicon; Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, Massachusetts, 2007.
Definitions of Greek words are mostly derived from: A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament And Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd Ed. (BDAG3), Revised/Edited by Frederick W. Danker; Based on Walter Bauer's Lexicon and Previous Editions by W.F. Arndt, F.W. Gingrich; The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2000. A few other lexicons and analytical lexicons were used as well.
Greek texts are copied from the public domain edition of: The Greek New Testament, SBL Edition (SBLGNT), (Society of Biblical Literature, Atlanta, Georgia) Logos Bible Software, Bellingham, Washington; Edited by: Michael W. Holmes; © 2010 by the Society of Biblical Literature and Logos Bible Software.
My beliefs are nonpartisan and based on Scripture alone, according to the intent of the Reformation. But, for classification purposes, they may fall under the heading of “Reformed New Covenant Baptist Theology of the 16th Century,” including their eschatological doctrines of Historic Premillennialism.
The cover art is a modified digital copy of a monochromatic painting by Nick Supina III, my brother by birth and in the Lord Jesus. In it, I see the girl as the young church, soon to be the bride of Christ. Her hand rests on a sword named “Jesus” (in Greek, ΙΗΣους). But she does not hold its handle. For it does not actually have a handle. It wields itself, protecting the spirits of God’s people through Christ’s power. It is the sword of the Living Word of God. Then the walking boy, engaging in his determined stride to take on the bullies who torment him, represents us, God’s elect children.
The young girl stops him and smiles to God, knowing the living sword will indeed work justice.